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0.21

Whitford Bridge

Axe
Otter, Sid, Axe and Lim catchment • Whitford • Devon • ID: 45211 • Level
(36m ago) • 4 readings/hr • 124 views

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Current Level
0.205 m
▬ Steady
24h Max
0.209 m
24h Min
0.200 m
Typical Range
0.20 - 1.50
m
Highest Recorded
2.59 m
7 Jul 2012
Since Nov 1964
Current level is 8% of this
🚽 Sewage overflows nearby

Recent Water Levels

🌍 floodradar.co.uk
1 day

Recent Readings

Steady over 6h
24 Aug 00:15 ▬ steady 0.205 m
24 Aug 00:00 ▼ -0.1 cm 0.205 m
23 Aug 23:45 ▼ -0.1 cm 0.206 m
23 Aug 23:30 ▼ -0.2 cm 0.207 m
23 Aug 23:15 ▬ steady 0.209 m
23 Aug 23:00 ▬ steady 0.209 m
23 Aug 22:45 ▲ +0.4 cm 0.209 m
23 Aug 21:30 ▬ steady 0.205 m
23 Aug 21:15 ▼ -0.1 cm 0.205 m
23 Aug 21:00 ▬ steady 0.206 m
23 Aug 20:45 ▬ steady 0.206 m
23 Aug 20:30 ▬ steady 0.206 m
23 Aug 20:15 ▲ +0.1 cm 0.206 m
23 Aug 20:00 ▬ steady 0.205 m
23 Aug 19:45 ▬ steady 0.205 m
23 Aug 19:30 ▬ steady 0.205 m
23 Aug 19:15 ▲ +0.1 cm 0.205 m
23 Aug 19:00 ▬ steady 0.204 m
23 Aug 18:45 ▼ -0.1 cm 0.204 m
23 Aug 18:30 0.205 m

Rainfall & Weather

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Flood history near this gauge

Official Environment Agency warnings issued since 2006 for the 14 flood areas linked to this gauge (nearest 0.5 km away).

2severe warnings 321flood warnings 301flood alerts

Most recent flood warning: 27 Jan 2026River Axe (Mid) at Axminster

Year by year
YearSevereWarningsAlerts
2026 0 9 11
2025 0 22 17
2024 0 24 31
2023 0 19 19
2022 0 10 12
2021 0 13 15
2020 0 13 17
2019 0 20 17
2018 0 19 18
2017 0 12 9
2016 0 26 15
2015 0 6 9
2014 1 36 15
2013 0 29 18
2012 1 45 21
2011 0 2 6
2010 0 4 4
2009 0 4 14
2008 0 8 14
2007 0 0 14
2006 0 0 5

Warnings apply to a whole flood area, not necessarily this exact spot. Years before 2006 aren't covered by the EA's historic record. See also the Whitford flood history.

Nearby Stations

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Station Details

  • Monitoring Station: Whitford Bridge
  • Watercourse: River Axe
  • Nearest Town: Whitford
  • County: Devon
  • Nearest reservoir: Leigh (23.1 km) · 79.9% full (as of 29 Jun 2026)
  • Coordinates: 50°45'10"N 3°2'50"W (50.752859, -3.047245)
  • Open in: Google Maps · Apple Maps (opens your maps app)
  • Date Opened: 5 Nov 1964
  • Status: Active
  • Station Type: River level station
  • Station Reference: 45211
  • EA Gauge ID: 45211-level-stage-i-15_min-m
  • Parameter: Level
  • Unit: m
  • Typical rise rate: 2 cm/hr (p95 sustained over 90 days)
  • Typical data delay: ~22 min (measured reading→publication lag)
  • Tidal: No
  • Lock / structure: No
  • Catchment Area: Otter, Sid, Axe and Lim
  • Typical Range: 0.199 – 1.500 m
  • Drainage Area: 289 km² upstream of this gauge
  • Flow Data: Available (m³/s) via EA Hydrology
  • EA Cross-check: 0.21 m (EA at 24 Aug 00:15)
  • Flow Archive: National River Flow Archive ↗

Geographic coordinates may reflect the access point for the gauge, and not the precise location in the watercourse that it is taking readings from.

Catchment Character

🌊 Fairly flashy Responds fairly quickly to rain, with moderate baseflow between events.

Your catchment is all the land that drains rainfall into the river above this gauge. Its character — how steep, wet, wooded, urban or chalky that land is — decides how fast rain here turns into a rising river. A steep, bare or clay catchment is “flashy” (rises and falls quickly, floods easily); a flat, chalk or well-wooded one is slow and steady. The tiles below put numbers to that; the flow-duration curve reads left-to-right from the river’s typical high flows (Q5) down to its low flows (Q95) — a steep curve means a flashy river.

The physical character of the land that drains to this gauge, and how it shapes its flood response — from the National River Flow Archive (UKCEH).

Baseflow Index
0.50
mixed response
Avg Annual Rainfall
1,109 mm/yr
1991–2020 · +5% since 1941–70
Urban Extent
1.1%
largely rural
Median Annual Flood
108 m³/s
QMED — typical yearly peak flow
Highest Recorded Flow
177 m³/s
7 Jul 2012
Flow-Duration Curve
mean 5.3118.202.851.265% (high)% of days exceeded95% (low)
Daily flow (m³/s) exceeded each % of the time — a steep curve is flashy, a flat one is steady. Q5 high · Q50 median · Q95 low.
Land Cover (2023)
Woodland 8%Grassland 75%Arable 13%Urban 3%
Grassland 78% → 75% since 1990

Flow affected by: public water supply, groundwater abstraction, effluent returns, industrial / agricultural abstraction.

Photos

Gauging-station photographs from the National River Flow Archive (UKCEH).

Photos © NRFA / UKCEH & the measuring authority — shown at web resolution. Full gallery on the NRFA ↗

About this gauge

Compound Crump profile weir downstream of Whitford Bridge. Initially installed to measure low flows but now a full range station.

More detail

The catchment

Extremely complex catchment of moderate relief draining Chalk and Greensand headwaters. Middle and lower reaches Mercia Mudstone; Lias clays and more Greensand. Land use is meadowland, low intensity agriculture, woodland and minor industrial development. No major changes in catchment.

The station

Compound Crump profile weir, total width 21.3m, low flow section 7.6m broad. Cableway on site. Installed primarily to measure low flows. Since 2009, Velocity area station for medium flows, modelled rating for high flows.

How it measures flow

Structure limit 2.1 m stage. Overspill at 1.65m on left bank fields; in large floods considerable bypassing. In-channel deposition becoming an increasing problem: A significant amount of gravel has built up between the upstream side of the weir and the road bridge. Bypassing included in the modelled rating. Bed-mounted ADCP added in 09/2009, when weir becomes non-modular flows are calculated using this until bypassing occurs, then reverts to modelled high flow rating.

Flow regime

Runoff influenced by groundwater abstraction/recharge. Abstraction for public water supply and industrial/agricultural purposes. Flows increased by effluent returns.

The flow record

Full period of record peak flow data reviewed and released in September 2019 (WINFAP Files v8).

Descriptions from the National River Flow Archive (UKCEH). NRFA station record ↗

Gauge Details

How this gauging station is built and how long it has measured (NRFA / UKCEH).

Gauge type
Gauging structure
Operating since
1964
Station datum
7.3 mAOD
Flow record
1964–2022 · 58 yrs · 100% complete
Peak-flow record
since 1964
Hydrometric area
45
Measured by
Environment Agency

Frequently asked questions

Is the River Axe at Whitford Bridge flooding today?

The current level is 0.21m, which is within the typical range of 0.20 to 1.50m. Flooding is unlikely at this level.

Is the river level rising or falling at Whitford Bridge?

Based on the most recent readings, the level is currently steady. The chart above shows the last 7 days of measurements, updated roughly every 15 minutes.

What is a normal level for the River Axe at Whitford Bridge?

The typical range at this station is 0.20m to 1.50m, based on Environment Agency historical data. Levels above 1.50m are higher than usually seen and may indicate a flood risk.

How often is this river level data updated?

Readings are taken by the Environment Agency gauge roughly every 15 minutes and FloodRadar refreshes its data continuously, so the level shown is normally less than an hour old.

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📮 Flood risk by postcode near this gauge

Postcodes within 5 km with properties in the Environment Agency’s rivers-and-sea flood-risk bands:

Check any UK postcode’s flood risk →

🏠 Buying or renting around here? Get the Property Flood-Risk Report for any English postcode — official risk band, floods since 1946, warning history, river behaviour and nearby storm overflows. £19 one-off. Learn more →